Whenever they have a spike in demand, the de-regulated prices go up by several hundred percent. Example
The article and comments here make me very happy to live in Quebec where the electricity is 0,067CAD per kWh for the first 40, then after it is 0,103CAD per kWh, and most of the time, that electricity is 100% renewable. In Québec we have many problems but the electricity is one big point to be proud of as a nation
$0.058 / kWh here in rural Oregon, it’s pretty awesome.
Now do the exchange rate.
A big part of that is it’s all state owned. Having private companies in charge of something as vital and important as energy infrastructure is just pure folly imo.
Yeah 100%. the current government here has a tendency to do bad stuff and a big fear here is they will slowly make it more private owned. But I think that every essential service should be state owned. electricity, groceries, clothing, internet etc. We have too few companies here that share too much of the market
But I think that every essential service should be state owned. electricity, groceries, clothing, internet etc.
I’m right there with you. To think our food security hinges on a bunch of fat cats and the stock market makes me nauseous. If I start talking about the telecom industry, I might just throw my phone. Change is long overdue.
Telecom industry is so corrupt here it’s unbelievable they get away with it
God you kaybeckers are retarded
Thanks for getting to our level on your own 😘
How much is your income taxed? ~60%, like the rest of Canada?
According to ChatGPT:
15% on the first $49,275 of taxable income.
20% on the next $49,275 of taxable income (over $49,275 up to $98,550).
24% on the next $19,170 of taxable income (over $98,550 up to $117,720).
25.75% on the taxable income over $117,720.
Bullshit.
The last bracket which starts at 235k is about 58% (but there are many ways to put money aside to lower your income bracket). But don’t lose our hair worrying if we will have to file for bankruptcy to get basic healthcare. We also get many tax-free and tax. In Montreal we have a top 10 world university that costs less than 1000$ per semester for citizens. We also don’t have to worry about people carrying guns around. But go on I guess
Holy propaganda-muncher 😂
If you want to talk about taxes, include cost of your healthcare. Because that’s included in our taxes.
Fun fact, America pays as much per capita for healthcare through taxes as Canadians, but that only gets you Medicare and Medicaid. Americans sure get angry about a lot of things, but I never see them get angry about that.
Maybe it depends on your energy provider and whether you have a fixed rate or variable rate plan? I don’t know if other places have those options or not. Check out powertochoes.org if you don’t know what I mean. Mine just went up from $200 to $300 this month with the heat. My highest of usually 1-2 months of ~$350.
$350? 😭 ive never had an electric bill above $150
They just make a lot of money or lived outside their means. When people mention big AC bills, they’re cooling 2000sqft homes to under 70F 24/7. No idea why American culture does this insanity.
I get by just fine with 78F during the day and a little lower at night, it even gets a bit cold when the compressor runs. Low low bills even when it’s 110 (not hyperbole, that’s the literal temp) outside.
Additionally every degree higher it gets outside, the less efficient your AC/heat pump gets so you need more power to hit the same temp even after accounting for the higher heat differential.
I had 300 dollar bills peak season in one bed apt before due to poor insulation. Being poor sucks. I thought it was a good deal until the bills came in lol
My average bill is $350, with summer months reaching ~$650. But, I have 3100 sq feet with 7 people at home and 2 EVs. Including monthly service fees, my per kWh cost works out to 11.9 cents.
Who’s your provider? My plan is about to expire. I’m looking at Octopus for 13.4 cents.
SRP, but they only operate in Phoenix, AZ.
2400 sq ft. Just two of us now, but I’m home in the day during the summer and we have frequent guests. In past years we had elderly mom and nursing care here so we had to keep it comfortable all day. We heat/cool upstairs only at night, downstairs only in the day and close vents in unused rooms. Our mid-90’s HVAC can’t get to 70°. We did get an electric pellet grill last year and we’ve been using it a lot to keep from heating the house. I wonder how much that adds.
We did get an electric pellet grill last year and we’ve been using it a lot to keep from heating the house. I wonder how much that adds.
A rule of thumb I heard from datacenters is to count every watt of power consumption as 3 to account for the additional demand on the cooling systems and battery backup, so an electric grill probably saves a ton of energy over the oven given it isn’t heating up the house
In the apartment I just moved out of, even after several complaints I had summer electric bills $600+ and it was still hot…night before I moved it was 91 outside and 89 inside. So far my new apartment is better but haven’t seen any electric bills yet
Arizona here. My August service bill is the highest of the year, usually ends up around $425 or so with the thermostat set to ~76. January is usually the lowest, and I can get that down to about $75. Averages out to about $220/mo over the year. It’s ridiculous.
In Texas? It’s 600 degrees here today. Friend refers to it as Satan’s asshole.
What part of Texas are you in? Here in the Austin area, it was like 85°F. It was super nice. Looks like it’s gonna be nice tomorrow as well.
Dallas. We’re 97-101 the next few days, then it drops to 90 with a chance of rain Thursday and Friday. Glad I’m not in Houston sweating without electricity!
His name is Dan Patrick.
Took me a day to realize that abbot was Satan and Patrick was his asshole.
Most residents aren’t on these types of plans. The ones that are turn shit off, or pay through the nose.
Generally the ones that are on those plans are the most vulnerable. I’ve got a fixed TXU plan. The up front cost of being on it was a couple of hundred bucks because I had bad credit at the time. The pay as you go variable rate places don’t have that up front cost and when it’s not peak times they’re significantly cheaper.
Unfortunately they don’t always let people know in time when the rates spike. So these vulnerable people don’t even realize they should be turning shit off or they’re not home to do it or it’s a heat wave/ice storm where they could just fucking die if they turn off climate control.
It’s been a fucking mess down here in Houston. My electricity came up pretty quickly and I was able to head west and grab a hotel for a night so I didn’t get heat stroke. I’m lucky. I was able to come back and eat the brisket I smoked before Beryl came through (I’m a stereotype, sue me). But there are people who still don’t have electricity in this fucking weather and there are others who have to decide between their fridge and their AC.
I’m drunk, bitter, and pissed off tonight. So I’m gonna ramble.
Toss these guys a few bucks the next time your plan is up for renewal and see what rate you can get. Usually TXU is on the high side. https://www.texaspowerguide.com/
It is, but it wasn’t when I got on the plan. I happened to hit it at just the right time. I’ve been too lazy to shop around since then.
I’m gonna take that advice. I’m up again in either November or December I think. I need to go look.
Drunk, bitter, and pissed off. That should be our state motto. Cheers!
That’s some next level owning the libs.
I’m certainly feeling owned right now. Ouch!
More questions here than answers, unfortunately.
It’s my understanding that there is a cap at $5000/MwH ($5/kwH). That is still hella expensive, but would only be for a day or two at maximum?
For the headlines of +$16000 power bills, that is probably a one-off for heavy power consumers, like businesses that have massive freezers and such, correct?
there is a cap at $5000/MwH
It’s MWh (megawatt hours). That’s only for wholesale electricity, which is available to retail electrical providers, not consumers. So your utility company can charge you whatever they want, but their price is capped. Funny how that works.
More info about the cap specifically available here. (PDF)
Ok, that clears up my misunderstanding then. I was thinking that the cap applied across the board. (That does change things a bit, don’t it?)
A properly insulated industrial freezer should consume less electricity than a house with AC, even if it’s set at a reasonable temp.
I’m curious as to how this would compare to a properly insulated home?
most the houses in texas are uninsulated to keep construction costs down. (despite the fact that even a minimal amount of insulation would pay for itself inside of a year or two.) (Why would you want to insulate against heat, right? global warming is a woke-ist hoax! /s)
New houses or ones built in the 1960’s? If its new houses, how does code not specify a minimum R value? Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer.
texas doesn’t require a specific r-value for walls in the southern third of the state. (the rest it’s r-5). They do require some insulation in an attic.
Most (cheap) homes don’t slap up insulation if they don’t have to. and r-5 is an extremely low value.
and further, that’s only on new houses. There’s plenty of old houses still in circulation and the vast majority of the old houses are entirely uninsulated. a properly insulated house, you can keep rooms warm just by being in them. we saw that’s not true of homes in texas during the big freeze a while back.
Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer.
that’s this sarcastic comment was about:
(Why would you want to insulate against heat, right? global warming is a woke-ist hoax! /s)
When I was growing up the people across the street had an uninsulated houses – in NW Wisconsin.
I guess Texas is going to do Texas things but with the heat and the grid falling apart every couple of years, they really should mandate the same level of insulation that we do up north.
they really should mandate
That sound you hear is Texas loudly pushing back on any sort of gubmint infetterance.
Did you mean interfetterance?
Yeah… I’m in MN.
It’s not like we don’t get triple digits ourselves in recent years. And it really does come down to shaving down those construction costs. The insulation would pay for itself in like 2 years, though.
TIL. It makes sense that they can be more efficient now that you pointed that out.
I have a friend from high school that got hit with a something like $20,000 bill because he signed up for some discount program on his electric bill. The freeze a couple years ago did similar things to demand and he got hit with a massive bill.
I presume he couldn’t pay it? What happens after that? Do you get blacklisted from power companies?
You get tossed to collections and your credit is ruined. It makes it very hard to rent, finance anything or get certain jobs.
Not correct.
I have coworkers in Texas that got hit with multi thousand dollar bills during brown outs.
Deregulating critical services never ends well for the consumer.
Get a hotel room like any adult man does when he is hot and bothered…
🤣
Energy pricing in Texas is managed for the benefit of the utilities, not their customers. Some of the people on non-fixed plans who got charged insane amounts just went bankrupt.
Texas is a nearly perfect example of how the Republicans think everything should work.
Texas; where people with power make extra money for specifically not doing good enough.
Close but not correct.
It’s an established marketplace, where legislated “middlemen” buy from the utilities and then sell to the consumer.
You can’t actually buy directly from the utility generating the power without going through the marketplace.
It is sold as a “free market” that would drive competition and keep prices down. In actuality, it just allows leaches, who don’t actually produce anything, to sit in the middle and suck money out of the economy.
Sure some of them will lose money, while others will make a billion, but the system works just fine as a regulated controlled monopoly.
Texas is a perfect example of Republican hypocrisy. The Governor, Lt Governor, State AG, etc… are quite literally the worst kind of politicians.
I seriously dislike Sheila Jackson Lee, but I feel bad about her situation.
I would laugh if that wheel chaired, piece of shit rolled off a cliff.
I would laugh if Dan Patrick caught on fire.
On second thought, I might use Ken Paxton to put out the fire, by that I mean, push him onto Dan, hoping he would catch on fire too.
Shit, that went a lot darker than I intended.
Oh right I see here the old fallacy that economic agents have a full thorough understanding of all the choices and make fully rational decisions based on all the facts that exist, because why would you have facts not accessible to everyone?
If you have a point to make, say it.
Free market is a lie
Economics is not a science
Let the down votes come
Umm, what?
I can just pray my bills away? Neat!
No bills, only gay. Everything else: bootstraps.
No bills, only gay.
I’m hetero af but I’d take that deal in an instant.
There’s a few men on Grindr that might just take you up on that offer…
Lol
I’d be shocked that anyone puts up with this, but then I remember how the healthcare system “works.”
Wholesale or Retail? I couldn’t read the article.
Power companies average things out.
Now some customers specifically ask to pay the instantaneous price, and those people just turn things off. This has the advantage that you end up paying less during times if low demand.
Those are the wholesale prices to the utility company itself from the grid operators, not the prices to end users from the utility company. End users pay a flat amount per kWh that does not change by demand.
Most of us do. A few people do sign up for variable rate plans, and they did get astronomical bills during the snowpocalypse. IIRC they didn’t get any aid or anything, it was a small enough number of people that they just got hung out to dry.
We have contracts like everyone else. No one pays the day by day rate.
Then what’s the point in having a day by day rate?
It’s the same reason why the fed controls interest rates. Entities higher up the chain deal with those volatile costs so we don’t have to.
Because that’s what the electric company is paying, and if it stays high our contracts go up next year
They pay their savings directly into the pockets of bought politicians and corrupt energy execs.
They don’t
Just like to point out that Jerry Jones (the owner of the Dallas Cowboys) made almost $1 Billion, with a B, during the big freeze because he owns the natural gas fields and his good budy Governor Abbot said that wholesalers must sell for the max amount as allowed by law during that time, basically legalizing price gouging.
